White Owl Society Draft

1 World Backstory

1.1 Sparkies

  • Heroes, adventurers, "sparkies"; people of great power bestowed upon them at birth.
  • You can't become a sparkie, and its not magic (impossible to detect).
  • People of great ability, normal people cannot even hope to stand against them without assistance.
  • Normal people cannot access magic at all, but not all sparkies can either.
  • Inbuilt preferences, seemingly 'destined' for certain roles like powerful swordsmen, ranger or wizard.
  • Strong desire for adventure and nomadic style lives, get anxious living in the same place too long, naturally gravitate toward other sparkies tend to make an impact on the world, but not destined or guaranteed greatness; arrogance can and has killed sparkies both early in their career and late and powerful.

1.2 Adventurers Guild

Adventurers are governed by the Adventurers Guild, which trains, provides equipment and assistance and helps in covering up any collateral damage and ensuring the top sparkies reputations aren't harmed. Hundreds of years of adventurers fighting the forces of evil have left the planet devoid of anything that could possibly pose a threat to the world. Lower level adventurers still mostly busy, fighting orc bands, kobold camps etc. Top level adventurers bored, looking for ways to entertain themselves in a world they are increasingly becoming disconnected to, they are starting to see it as a plaything.

2 Story Background

Story is primarily about three groups: wizard, head of guard and spymaster; "the boys x suicide squad" style commoner squad and brand new sorcerer who has just joined the top level adventuring team.

2.1 Three Founders

Wizard, head of guard, spymaster together with a ancient black dragon form a resistance style society to fight back against adventurers who ruin and destroy lives with the careless use of their abilities.

2.1.1 Past

  • Wizard, head of guard and spymaster (now called White Owl Society for brevity) came together because of the carelessness of the top level adventuring team.
  • The king of a fairly large country was "persuaded" (mind control, dosed with a potion, etc) into giving up his crown for the adventuring team to rule as an equal council. They did this to try something new, bored and just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. The people applauded this, these heroes who had saved their city many times were welcomed as their leader while the head of the guards and the spymaster were extremely suspicious in the manner the king gave his crown to them but unable to take direct action against a group of people who could instantly kill them or even simply not accept being in prison "how do you put superman in jail?"
  • They came in at a time of unprecedented peace, and became bored very quickly as their jobs mostly revolved around tweaking tax brackets and settling land disputes
  • After two months of neglectful treatment, and as the population were shouting at the gates and rioting, they abandoned their posts and went to their ship to escape
  • Wizard refused to go, he was desperately trying to run the city/country as best he could but due to his autism/social problems had immense trouble convincing anyone of his competence
  • They leave wizard behind, and the head of guards convinces him to escape with the spymaster and a small contingent of royal guards
  • "You either stay here and kill a lot of people, or you stay and let them kill you. Or you come with us. Your choice."
  • Bitterness on the part of all of them, growing as they travel the ruined countryside and watch what was once idyllic nation devolve into complete chaos.
  • Adventuring guild attempts to cover it up somehow (haven't figured that out specifically lol) which is accepted by most people except for those who lived in the city and were direct witnesses to the incompetence of the adventurers.
  • They form a group, dedicating the rest of their lives to taking down the top adventuring team, the adventuring guild and any other groups that abuse the power they've been given.

2.1.2 Current

  • they move to a magically poisonous deep valley area between two mountains that the wizard had encountered early on with his adventures with his former team. he forms a magical, invisible protective bubble that hides what is inside and clears the area of poison, creating the area for what will soon become known as Haven
  • they scour the land for people who have been wronged by adventurers, using the spymasters contact within the adventuring guilds compensations department and convince them to join up.
  • this is at the specific request of the wizard, who wants to form a township and give a life, opportunity and revenge to people who have been fucked over by adventurers
    • people who serve a specific purpose are contacted; eg the innkeeper who has his inn destroyed by sparkies is offered a place within Haven as the innkeeper
    • Head of the Guards is conflicted over this, though he enjoys the town they've created he can't help but think that all of these people will instantly die if the adventurers ever find and break into Haven
    • spymaster extremely dislikes this, as he would ideally have a small easily controllable military force and thats it, but realizes the value that Haven adds
      • convince people to join up easier because its not just an insane terrorist cell in the middle of the woods, its a whole society of people who have all been equally fucked over and can relate
      • amenities like bars, shops, parks, and mostly importantly other people to befriend and even fall in love means that its more attractive to join and move your entire life to this place.
    • despite both of their objections they go along, because why say no to the guy who is basically a god and essentially funding and making your revenge possible.
  • citizens of haven are given special bracelets, that when pressed teleport them to a reinforced bunker within one of the mountains that forms their valley
  • ancient black dragon is recruited by wizard after he hears about his former party hunting down and killing dragons for sport, essentially
  • "you can I both know I stand an equal chance of beating you on my own, so hear me out. join us, help us save your kind."
  • dragon joins up, lends its magical knowledge and strength to the wizard and protection to the people of haven should any adventurers breach the magic wall

2.2 The Boys x Suicide Squad

  • spymaster is given idea by creation of Haven and recruitment of its people to create small black ops "the boys x suicide squad" style squads
  • people that don't specifically fill a niche or otherwise add direct value to Haven, or people who are specifically extremely angry at sparkies and want direct revenge are recruited into these squads, armed with magic imbued jewellery and sent out to seek their revenge
  • magic imbued jewellery contains limited casts of certain spells that allows these commoners access to magic, and potentially to close the gap in power between them and the heroes they are going up against.
  • as they are just commoners fighting sparkies, its unlikely that they will ever win but occasionally they pull through and manage to take out a few members
  • second part of story revolves around one of these squads that manages to survive and complete missions, over and over again by the skin of their teeth.